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PlainSpell

slug

/slʌɡ/noun, verb

slug is spelled S-L-U-G: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,336th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, slug means “Any of many gastropod mollusks, having no (or only a rudimentary) shell” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of slug is slugs.

How many letters and syllables are in slug?

Letters4: S-L-U-G
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.0 times per million words; the 19,336th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is slug?

Slug appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,336th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce slug?

  • US /slʌɡ/
  • Australia /slɐɡ/
  • /slʊɡ/

Slug has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-slug.ogg, En-au-slug.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with slug?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as slug from its last stressed vowel (/ʌɡ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of slug

  • slugs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • slugging participle, present
  • slugged participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does slug mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Any of many gastropod mollusks, having no (or only a rudimentary) shell.

  2. 2

    obsoleteA slow, lazy person; a sluggard.

  3. 3

    A bullet or other projectile fired from a firearm; in modern usage, generally refers to a shotgun slug.

  4. 4

    A solid block or piece of roughly shaped metal.

  5. 5

    A counterfeit coin, especially one used to steal from vending machines.

  6. 6

    A shot of a drink, usually alcoholic.

  7. 7

    A title, name or header, a catchline, a short phrase or title to indicate the content of a newspaper or magazine story for editing use.

  8. 8

    rareThe imperial (English) unit of mass that accelerates by 1 foot per second squared (1 ft/s²) when a force of one pound-force (lbf) is exerted on it.

    The average slug has a mass of around 0.00002 slugs.

  9. 9

    A hard blow, usually with the fist.

verb

  1. 1

    To drink quickly; to gulp; to down.

  2. 2

    To take part in casual carpooling; to form ad hoc, informal carpools for commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking.

  3. 3

    To become reduced in diameter, or changed in shape, by passing from a larger to a smaller part of the bore of the barrel.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo move slowly or sluggishly; to lie idle.

  5. 5

    To load with a slug or slugs.

    to slug a gun

  6. 6

    To make sluggish.

  7. 7

    To hit very hard, usually with the fist.

    He insulted my mother, so I slugged him.

noun

as SLUG
  1. 1

    USinformalA special-purpose security of the State and Local Government Series.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Slug in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchlimace (gastropod), pruneau, dragée, bastos (bullet)
GermanNacktschnecke, Schnecke (gastropod), hinunterstürzen, trinken (to drink, gulp), schlagen, niederschlagen (to hit hard)
Portugueselesma (gastropod), bala, projétil, chumbinho (bullet), dose, trago (shot of drink)
Spanishbabosa, limaco, babaza, limaza, babosilla, lumiaco (gastropod)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does slug come from?

Originally referred to a slow, lazy person, from Middle English slugge (“lazy person", also "sloth, slothfulness”), probably of either Old English or Old Norse origin; perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sliǵ-ōn, from *sley- (“smooth; slick; sticky; slimy”) or otherwise from the root of Old Norse slókr (“lazy person, oaf”), whence Icelandic slókur (“laziness”). Compare Norn slug (“lazy, slothful, sluggish”), dialectal Norwegian slugg (“a large, heavy body”), sluggje (“heavy, slow person”), Danish slog (“rascal, rogue”). Compare also Dutch slak (“snail, slug”). Doublet of slotch.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after slug